`No, we've been hunting in the Tver province. It was coming back from there that I met your beau-frere in the train, or your beau-frere's brother-in-law,' he said with a smile. `It was an amusing meeting.'

And he began telling with droll good humor how, after not sleeping all night, he had, wearing a fur-lined, full-skirted coat, got into Alexei Alexandrovich's compartment.

`The conductor, forgetting the proverb, would have chucked me out on account of my attire; but thereupon I began expressing my feelings in elevated language, and... you, too,' he said, addressing Karenin and forgetting his name, `at first would have ejected me on the ground of my coat, but afterward you took my part, for which I am extremely grateful.'

`The rights of passengers generally to choose their seats are too ill-defined,' said Alexei Alexandrovich, rubbing the tips of his fingers on his handkerchief.

`I saw you were in uncertainty about me,' said Levin, smiling good-naturedly, `but I made haste to plunge into intellectual conversation to smooth over the defects of my attire.'

Sergei Ivanovich, while he kept a conversation with their hostess, had one ear for his brother, and he glanced askance at him. `What is the matter with him today? Why such a conquering hero?' he thought. He did not know that Levin was feeling as though he had grown wings. Levin knew she was listening to his words and that she was glad to listen to him. And this was the only thing that interested him. Not in that room only, but in the whole world, there existed for him only himself, with enormously increased importance and dignity in his own eyes, and she. He felt himself on a pinnacle that made him giddy, and far away down below were all those kind, excellent Karenins, Oblonskys, and all the world.

Quite without attracting notice, without glancing at them, as though there were no other places left, Stepan Arkadyevich put Levin and Kitty side by side.

`Oh, you may as well sit there,' he said to Levin.

The dinner was as choice as the china, of which Stepan Arkadyevich was a connoisseur. The soupe Marie-Louise was a splendid success; the tiny patties eaten with it melted in the mouth and were irreproachable. The two footmen and Matvei, in white cravats, did their duty with the dishes and wines unobtrusively, quietly, and dexterously. On the material side the dinner was a success; it was no less so on the immaterial. The conversation, at times general and at times between individuals, never paused, and toward the end the company was so lively that the men rose from the table without stopping speaking, and even Alexei Alexandrovich became lively.